CYCLE PATH: Obstruction is offence

I found Mark Holmes’ letter on the cycle path (News Guardian, May 5), both accurate and instructive.

I agree with most of what he says. My house overlooks that section of Broadway. I support his assessment of usage by cyclists, although I would be inclined to be a little more generous. I note that almost as many continue to ride on the road as use the cycle path.

Perhaps your earlier correspondent who referred to “hundreds” of users would publish the source of his data? I am stating my, as has Mark Holmes, personal observation.

It should also be borne in mind that we are currently at the novelty stage. People are trying it out because it is new. What will be the usage in a few months’ or a year’s time?

I support Mark Holmes’ statement that there has not been a traffic survey since the completion of the scheme. Traffic surveys announce themselves by the appearance to two sets of cable about a foot apart laid across the road. I live on this road and I have not seen such evidence, except during the run-up to work being started.

According to my observations, as many vehicles park on it, running their nearside wheels onto it, as cyclists use it. The other day two guys in a car did so and blocked the entrance to a linking road in the process.

Obstructing the cycle way and the road constitutes a traffic offence. The police have taken steps to inform Broadway residents of this, yet neither the police, council, nor local press, have bothered to inform other potential offenders. Perhaps it is time they did. Such would be a public service to the benefit of all. The publication of a general statement reiterating the law in this respect would be most helpful and constitute an important social service.

I now raise the matter of the colour scheme, which is an abomination. Is it coloured so to signify the fact that it is a cycle way? If so, why have other cycle ways not been similarly treated, such as those recently completed in Beach Road and Rake Lane? I drive extensively and I have not seen a cycle path similarly coloured anywhere else in North Tyneside, or even Tyne and Wear.

Is this a punishment for those people who live alongside it for their persistent constructive criticism of the scheme over the past year?

Carl Johnson

Broadway South Resident

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